


The Yearbook

by bluebellsandcocklesshells



Category: Supernatural
Genre: High School AU, M/M, slight miscontruing trope
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-03
Updated: 2016-05-03
Packaged: 2018-06-06 05:34:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,802
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6740566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluebellsandcocklesshells/pseuds/bluebellsandcocklesshells





	The Yearbook

Castiel felt his brain short circuit as Dean Winchester, resident bad boy of Lawrence High and bane of every teacher’s existence, handed him back his yearbook with a smile and a wink. Cas was fairly certain he managed to take the book and not let it fall to the ground, but he was so focused on watching his four-year crush walk away that he couldn’t even feel its weight in his hands.

 Castiel had transferred to Lawrence High as a freshman and immediately found friends in the Nature Club and the Debate Team.  He didn’t have any horror stories of being the outsider or the loser, though he certainly wasn’t popular by any means.  There was that brief time sophomore year when he’d dated Meg Masters—although he wasn’t sure they had actually dated.  It was still debated by his friends whether their brief acquaintanceship which included one kiss counted as “dating.”  People had noticed him them because everyone noticed Meg, but then she’d been gone with very little warning and Castiel faded back into obscurity.

 He’d noticed Dean freshman year when he’d been skinny and almost too pretty and his blond hair sometimes fell into his eyes.  He’d been captivated by Dean’s confidence.  He listened to old music and liked _Star Trek_ , but he didn’t fit in with the geeks.  The next year, after he’d cut his hair and put on some muscle to fill out his tall frame, he didn’t fit in with the jocks either.  He wasn’t a bad student and he didn’t misbehave, but neither did he show much interest in the proceedings during class.  Junior year he got his car and all of a sudden he was a man who resented being held to childish things like school.  It was at this point that Castiel’s crush on the cute boy in his grade turned into full on pining and furious masturbation sessions in the shower.  By senior year Dean was respected by everyone because he didn’t take shit from anyone, including teachers, but Castiel would be hard pressed to name one of Dean’s friends. He wasn’t sure if he was a loner by choice or if there were other circumstances involved, but when people cleared a path for him in the hallway, he was always walking through it alone.

 They’d had a few classes together over four years of high school.  For someone who disliked school and seemed to have everyone fooled that he never studied and didn’t do any homework and didn’t care about grades, he was in a surprising number of advanced placement classes.  The proximity allowed Cas to talk to Dean a few times.  And at one point at the end of junior year, Cas would have dared to call Dean an acquaintance if not an outright friend.

 He never told him about his crush though.  Dean spent too much time in janitor closets with cheerleaders for him to have much hope in being with Dean in a romantic way.  But, talking to Dean and listening to his philosophy on life and listening to him talk about that monstrosity of a car and explain why the original series was so much better than _Next Generation_ even though Picard was totally superior to Kirk made for an enjoyable way to kill time between classes.

This was the last day of high school though and Castiel hadn’t so much as ever asked if Dean wanted to hang out outside of school before.  He’d planned on leaving his contact information in Dean’s yearbook, but he hadn’t bought one.  He’d said there was no one at the school he wanted to remember.  That had hurt to hear, but it hadn’t been surprising.  He’d decided to abandon his plan to ask Dean to sign his book, but then he’d spotted it tucked under Cas’ arm and volunteered to sign it.

Now Cas had his prized possession and Dean was walking away and out the door.  Heck, he might not even show up to graduation.  What if this was the last time he ever saw him? The memory of that cheeky smile and the way his broad shoulders filled the frame of the door would stick in his mind forever.  It was a good memory and one he was willing to accept as being all he would ever get.

 Once he was certain Dean was definitely gone, he cracked open the book and scanned the page for Dean’s message.  He smiled when he recognized Dean’s handwriting running down the crease.  Then he laughed as he read that Dean had written, “I signed your crack!”  The rest of the message was short and quite generic, but it was nice that—Castiel’s heart broke in his chest.  He fell back against the nearest wall and stared at the message.  Then he slammed the book shut and looked up at the ceiling, trying not to cry.

 “Hey, hey!” Castiel heard Balthazar say in his most teasing voice as he approached.  He nudged Cas’ shoulder.  “I saw you got your stalkee to sign your yearbook!  Good job!”

 Castiel dropped his head, unable to speak for the tears clogging his throat.

 “Hey, what’s wrong? Did he refuse to do it?”

 Castiel shook his head.

 “That wanker!  How much effort would it take to sign a book? He’s a dick, Cassie.  Don’t even—”

 “He signed it, Balthazar.”

 “Then why are you so upset?  Or, are these tears of joy?  Was it sappy?”

 Cas shook his head, his voice and lower lip trembling as he spoke.  “He totally brushed me off.  Wrote something really generic and meaningless.  And then he signed it with a fake name—like he hoped I wouldn’t know who he was or didn’t want me to remember him or something…”

 Castiel covered his eyes with a hand.  It was stupid.  He barely knew the guy.  They had hardly spoken in four years.  Why did he care about the fact that he was an insensitive jerk?

 “He signed the wrong name?” Balthazar asked, confused.  “You mean he didn’t know your name?”

 “No, he wrote ‘Cas,’ but he signed it Kit.  Like, what the hell kind of name is Kit anyway?”

 Balthazar made a face at him and snatched the yearbook out of his hands.  He flipped to the back and started scanning the sparse number of messages from Castiel’s other friends.

 “Where’d he sign?”

 Castiel pointed to the sideways written message.  Balthazar snorted.

 “Signed your crack, like that’s original.”

 “See?  It’s a generic ‘have a nice summer’ message. And then there’s the fake name!”

 “Castiel,” Balthazar said around a small groan.  “That’s not Kit, it’s K-I-T, you twat.  It stands for ‘Keep In Touch.’  See, here? He ran out of room in the crack, so he wrote his number horizontally and there are his initials next to it.  Now, if he just wrote KIT, that’s a brush off. But he gave you his number.  He means it.”

 Castiel took the book back and looked at it again.  He now saw that the string of numbers along the bottom was still in Dean’s handwriting, and those initials were definitely D.W.  He looked up at Balthazar.

 “What do you think he meant, though?”

 “Hell if I know what goes on in that kid’s brain.  Call and ask. Do it now before you lose the little scraps of balls you’re clinging to right now.”

 Castiel pulled out his phone and dialed the number before he could allow his brain to explain to him why that was a stupid idea.  It rang three times and then Dean answered with a gruff, suspicious, “Yeah?”

 “Hello, Dean.”

 “Who’s this?”

 “It’s Cas.  Uh, Castiel Novak.”

 “Oh!  Hey, Cas.  Shoulda recognized that gravelly voice of yours.”

 Castiel flushed as he pictured the grin Dean would have had on his face if they were talking in person.

 “Yeah,” he replied, just to have something to say.

 “So, what’s up?”

 “Um.  You said to keep in touch.  So, I’m keeping in touch.”

 Dean chuckled.  “Good.  I was hoping you would.”

 “Really?  You said there was no one at this school you wanted to remember.”

 “Well, obviously I didn’t mean you.”

  _Obviously_?

 “Well, I gotta pick up my little brother from the middle school, but we definitely need to hang out this summer, okay?  And you know. Make sure that we do the whole…keeping in touch thing.”

 Castiel tilted his head.  “Um. Am I—”

 “No, Cas, you’re not misinterpreting my inference.”

 “Oh.”

 “You’ve missed literally every other hint, clue, and innuendo I’ve thrown at you for the last four years, but today, I think you finally got it.”

 Castiel knew his jaw was hanging open, but he could do nothing about it.  Balthazar was miming frantically, trying to find out what was going on.

 “So, are you down with that?  Still want to hang out?”

 “Uh, yeah. Yes!  Fuck!  When I went outside during junior prom and we talked for half an hour and then we saw that shooting star—you _were_ going to kiss me!”

 Balthazar’s mouth fell open and he put his hands out in excited confusion.

 “Well, yeah.  But then you started talking about how that shooting star was most likely a discharged module of astronaut poop from the International Space Station burning up in the atmosphere and that you needed to get back inside to your date.”

 “Oh my god.  I am so embarrassed.”

 “You should be. But, now that everything’s out in the open, it should go more smoothly.”

 “You’d think that,” Castiel said wryly, “but don’t doubt my powers of awkwardness.”

 “I would never. It’s one of my favorite things about you.”

 Castiel smiled and bit his lip so he wouldn’t scream out with joy.

 “So, can I swing by your house tonight and pick you up?  I won’t keep you out too late; I know how your parents are.”

 “Yeah!  Yeah, that sounds great.”

 “Okay.  See you tonight.”

 “Tonight.”  Cas grinned and hung up the phone.

 Balthazar gesticulated wildly with each syllable.  “What. The. Fuck. Just.  Hap. Pened.”

 Cas’ grin wouldn’t subside.  “I have a date with Dean Winchester.”

 Balthazar stared for a moment and then he crossed his arms in mild annoyance.  “You know?  I’m not even all that surprised.”

 “Nobody is,” Becky Rosen commented from nearby as she cleaned out her locker.  “I think most people would be surprised to find out that you two apparently _haven’t_ been dating for at least the past year.”

 “O-oh.”

 “But, now that I have your attention, sign my yearbook?”

 Cas laughed and took the book from her outstretched hand.  “Of course.  I’d be happy to.”  He opened the back of book and paused before writing in the corner.  He smirked and turned the book sideways.

  _“Becky, I’m the first one to sign your crack!  Never change. KIT.”_


End file.
